UK sportsbooks to repay victims of an alleged EUR 15 million Spanish Ponzi scheme

About 200 victims of an alleged investment fraud in Spain are expected to recover more than one-third of their losses, with roughly EUR 6 million coming from funds surrendered by UK gambling operators. For PSPs and operators, the point is straightforward: AML failures in one market can end up funding restitution in another, after a long cross-border paper trail.

1. The case centers on Iban Juvanteny Gómez, whom prosecutors say ran a Ponzi scheme between 2012 and 2019 after posing as an experienced financial professional. He allegedly claimed to be a broker with Barclays and used that story to solicit money from friends, relatives, and other acquaintances in Girona, in Spain’s Catalonia region.
2. Police say the scheme defrauded more than 200 people of approximately EUR 15 million. The money trail later became relevant to UK gambling firms because investigators found that Juvanteny had spent millions through UK-based online casinos and sportsbooks.
3. A joint investigation by the Mossos d’Esquadra, Europol, and West Yorkshire Police concluded that he had gambled several million pounds with UK operators. That work prompted the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) to investigate several gambling companies for potential regulatory failures tied to Juvanteny’s activity.
4. After more than two years of cross-border cooperation, West Yorkshire Police transferred more than EUR 6 million to judicial authorities in Girona in late April 2021. Those funds were set aside for possible restitution to victims, subject to approval by the Spanish courts.
5. According to Catalan news outlet APD, the recovered money came from regulatory settlements imposed on UK gambling operators over shortcomings in their anti-money laundering controls. The operators were not publicly identified, but a 2021 response in the UK Parliament said the UKGC had required Betway, Gamesys, Platinum Gaming, and Betfred operator Petfre to make payments after stolen funds were gambled through their platforms; the combined payments exceeded GBP 6.2 million.

No trial date has been set, and outstanding procedural issues could push the proceedings into 2028. For high-risk payment businesses, that’s the useful warning: restitution, enforcement, and operator liability can sit in the same case file for years before anyone gets to the finish line.